The Apprentice 2012 Results: Katie Wright FIRED!

After a trip to Edinburgh for their latest task, in which they had to create and sell gourmet street food, it’s back to the boardroom for the candidates.

Lord Sugar asks Adam about Phoenix’s street food and he explains they opted for meatballs and pasta. He causes Lord Sugar concern when describing how the pork used in the meatballs was “cheap”, forcing him to sheepishly insist, “it makes a quality meatball Lord Sugar, don’t get me wrong we weren’t going for poor quality, but it happened to be cheap to buy.”

Lord Sugar questions their product name as well as their prices considering their food stall was positioned outside Hearts football team’s stadium, joking, “they don’t pay that for a striker there!” Next, Jenna describes Sterling’s gourmet Scottish casserole and Lord Sugar is surprised by the amount they spent on their ingredients stating, “You really took the quality and gourmet thing seriously, didn’t you?”

Soon it’s time for Lord Sugar to reveal the all important results: Phoenix spent £90.25 on ingredients and had total sales of £388.29, resulting in a profit of £298.04 Sterling spent £268.82 on ingredients and had total sales of £588.60, resulting in a profit of £319.78

With a difference of just under £22, Sterling all breathe a sigh of relief as Lord Sugar treats them with a visit to a 5-star country club to ride some Segways.

Meanwhile, at the Losers Cafe, Phoenix’s Project Manager Adam is reluctant to take responsibility for his team losing the task, “I don’t take any of the blame myself for the failing in this task.” Back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar outlines the two reasons why he thinks they lost the task, “one is you can’t sell and two, you went off in the wrong direction and made a load of cheap stuff.”

Adam defends the quality of their street food, believing they did meet the gourmet criteria, to which Lord Sugar retorts, “Adam, I’ve had some pictures shown to me of these meatballs and I’ve got to tell you, I’ve seen things like that at the Zoo in the elephant pen on the floor.”

Lord Sugar asks Katie why she championed locating the stall at the football ground and Katie explains it was based on footfall but Lord Sugar emphasises, “£5.99 at a football match is out of the question!”

After finding out about the relocation to Grassmarket and the tour operator deal, Lord Sugar asks Azhar about his contribution to the task, “Were you selling Azhar? What were you doing? You’re very quiet over there.”

Stephen states that he believes Katie and Azhar were responsible for the failure of the task, and Adam echoes this, deciding to bring them both back to the boardroom. Once he has conferred with Nick and Karren, Lord Sugar calls the three candidates back into the boardroom.

Lord Sugar tells Adam that he believes his market trader mentality kicked in and he focused on getting something cheap and flogging it for as much as possible but Adam denies this. He tells Lord Sugar that he believes he is the best seller and best negotiator in the process but Azhar pipes in, “but you didn’t deliver on this project, you didn’t take control.” Adam turns on Azhar and claims, “Azhar you didn’t do anything, you let yourself down because you didn’t have any input whatsoever.” Adam refuses to accept that he is out of his depth and informs Lord Sugar that he is his “number one candidate.”

Adam says that he feels Katie is responsible for the failure of the task and a shocked Katie exclaims, “I was dressed as a pizza running around that place!”

After Lord Sugar asks the candidates why they shouldn’t be fired, he is ready to deliver his final verdict: “Azhar – I’ve expressed my opinion about you not speaking up, you’ve certainly come out of your shell a little bit here today and what you do say actually makes a bit of sense compared to some other people. Adam – you’re certainly an enthusiastic person but there are at least two or three big errors that have been made on this task. You were supposed to be the team leader and you let other people drag you down. Katie – he listened to you. One could argue that’s his problem for listening to you, but the information you gave him was wrong. Adam – I don’t know if you’re out of your depth here, I’m sure you’re a very hard worker and I know that you’ve got a good business going. I’m going to give you one more chance to stay in this process because I hope you’re going to learn now to assert your authority properly. Katie – I’m afraid to say that having been in this position for the third time I’m not convinced. Katie – You’re Fired.” As she is driven away in a black cab, Katie reflects: “I do feel absolutely robbed. I believe Adam should have been fired, he made a complete mess of this task, but the decision has been made. The plan was to make Lord Sugar a lot of money but it looks like I’m going to have to go off and do that by myself.”